Jeremy Higgins: DuQuoin

Well, on the weekend of April 16 we headed to DuQuoin, Illinois, for the indoor short track national. The track looked very well prepped, and I was ready to go out and have some fun racing on a small short track.

The first practice went well; the bike was working pretty good and I knew the changes that needed to be done to cut my lap times down. We made the few suspension changes that it needed and we went out for the first timed practice.

The bike was working much better in the first timed practice, but the track seemed to be a little bit slower. I felt like I made some fast laps and qualified 29th overall. We made some more small changes to the bike, and went back out for the final qualifying session. The bike seemed to be getting faster and faster; it was working great and I felt pretty good.

The second session I ended up 27th overall, which put me on the second row for the heats. I watched the first few pro sport heats and noticed that the track was now slippery and rough. I decided to stay with the bike setup I had and see how it worked. I got a pretty good start from the outside of the second row, but was soon pushed up off the groove from a crash in the first corner. The race was red-flagged and we had a complete restart.

I got an okay start off the line and was stuck on the outside of the track for the first lap or two until I could work my way down onto the racing groove. The track was rough and my bike was fighting me with every bump it hit. I struggled to stay on the groove and decided to try my luck with the higher, smoother line. It worked much better and I made it past a few other racers, but coming into Turn 1, I overdrove the bike and ended up going higher than I wanted to and was passed back by a few riders.

I ended up 11th in the heat and I knew I had to make some changes to the bike to make it to the main through the semi. We made some changes to the bike and went out for the semi. I had a second row start, and coming around for the green flag I was about 10th.

I was struggling with the bikes handling again but I found a line that missed most of the bumps. I caught up to the riders ahead of me and tried to make some passes to move up, but I struggled making it around riders on the tight track and I ended up finishing about 9th in my semi. Although we didn’t make the main, I feel that we made forward progress with the new bike and are headed in the right direction.